[DeTomaso] Absolutely zero DT content

audionut at hushmail.com audionut at hushmail.com
Fri Jul 29 14:06:58 EDT 2016


There is no market.   Honda made a stab at an automatic motorcycle in
the 70's.  Nobody bought one.  It was slow and slushy and no fun to
ride.  They come up on CL sometimes and are pretty much given away for
free.  "Please get this thing out of there.  Thank you." Motorcycle
riders are adventurous, risk-taking types.  Shifting is part of the
fun and gives you more precise control which, in certain situations,
may save a rider's life. Automatic transmissions are for people who
really would prefer that someone else do the driving, or for people
who sit in city traffic a lot. Paddle shifters are not even really all
that fun, in my experience, being really more of a racing device to
eliminate throttle lag when manually engaging a clutch. 
 Sent using Hushmail
On July 29, 2016 at 12:45 AM, "Charles McCall"  wrote:Motorcycle
ramblings with a question at the end....

The weather has been absolutely fantastic here for the past few weeks,
so I
have been using my motorcycle for my daily commute to and from work.
It's
recently back on the road after more or less being in storage for 18
years.
It is true that long term storage isn't good for vehicles - either
cars or
motorcycles. I filled the tank up with gas and it all ran right on the
floor... hoses that had disintegrated with time. Got that repaired.

The gas on the floor was mixing with a massive oil leak caused by a
gasket
on the cam tensioner that dried out and cracked. Got that fixed.

I'm glad my motorcycle is air-cooled or I know what would be leaking
now!
We didn't get off to a good start this year!

The motorcycle is a 1982 Suzuki GS650, nothing particularly special
but
with a lot of sentimental value. I bought it when I was 19 and a
college
sophomore. I'd never been on a motorcycle in my life - neither as a
passenger nor a driver. I walked into the local Suzuki dealer and said
"I
like that one, I'll buy it!" and paid for it with my visa card, at
19.6%
interest. And I wonder why it took me so long to pay off my college
loans?
;-)

We went to the parking lot and the salesman told me "This is the
clutch,
here's how you change gears, this is the front brake....have fun!" And
I
learned how to drive on the way home. Ah, youth!

The motorcycle has been all over the place. I went to Cornell
University,
in upstate NY, and my girlfriend at the time went to Michigan, so it
made
the trip many times. It's attended Sturgis (despite being a Japanese
bike,
but I drove it there unlike many of the Harleys!) prowled the streets
of
Chicago, etc. But it got put into storage when I moved to Europe and
took a
long time to catch up to me. It recently was made road-worthy and is
still
wearing US plates, although I'll have to fix that over the next year.
It is
very difficult and very expensive to insure a vehicle in Europe with
US
plates. But for those from the US or Canada attending Le Mans Classic
- -IT
CAN BE DONE!

Anyway, my question. The tendency in race cars and sports cars is
moving
away from a manual transmission to an automatic. I know that isn't
quite
true but don't really care if there is still technically a clutch or
not -
if there isn't a clutch pedal inside, then it's an automatic! Why
hasn't
the same thing happened with motorcycles? Because the shift time on a
motorcycle is already so short? Do racers even use the clutch on a
race
bike? The weight associated with the mechanism is a larger percentage
of a
light bike as opposed to a car?

Just wondering this morning, as it was a nice morning for a ride and
as
there's no radio my mind went wandering...
-------------- next part --------------
   There is no market.



   Honda made a stab at an automatic motorcycle in the 70's.  Nobody
   bought one.  It was slow and slushy and no fun to ride.  They come up
   on CL sometimes and are pretty much given away for free.  "Please get
   this thing out of there.  Thank you."

   Motorcycle riders are adventurous, risk-taking types.  Shifting is part
   of the fun and gives you more precise control which, in certain
   situations, may save a rider's life.

   Automatic transmissions are for people who really would prefer that
   someone else do the driving, or for people who sit in city traffic a
   lot.

   Paddle shifters are not even really all that fun, in my experience,
   being really more of a racing device to eliminate throttle lag when
   manually engaging a clutch.




   Sent using Hushmail
   On July 29, 2016 at 12:45 AM, "Charles McCall"
   <charlesmccall at gmail.com> wrote:

     Motorcycle ramblings with a question at the end....
     The weather has been absolutely fantastic here for the past few
     weeks, so I
     have been using my motorcycle for my daily commute to and from work.
     It's
     recently back on the road after more or less being in storage for 18
     years.
     It is true that long term storage isn't good for vehicles - either
     cars or
     motorcycles. I filled the tank up with gas and it all ran right on
     the
     floor... hoses that had disintegrated with time. Got that repaired.
     The gas on the floor was mixing with a massive oil leak caused by a
     gasket
     on the cam tensioner that dried out and cracked. Got that fixed.
     I'm glad my motorcycle is air-cooled or I know what would be leaking
     now!
     We didn't get off to a good start this year!
     The motorcycle is a 1982 Suzuki GS650, nothing particularly special
     but
     with a lot of sentimental value. I bought it when I was 19 and a
     college
     sophomore. I'd never been on a motorcycle in my life - neither as a
     passenger nor a driver. I walked into the local Suzuki dealer and
     said "I
     like that one, I'll buy it!" and paid for it with my visa card, at
     19.6%
     interest. And I wonder why it took me so long to pay off my college
     loans?
     ;-)
     We went to the parking lot and the salesman told me "This is the
     clutch,
     here's how you change gears, this is the front brake....have fun!"
     And I
     learned how to drive on the way home. Ah, youth!
     The motorcycle has been all over the place. I went to Cornell
     University,
     in upstate NY, and my girlfriend at the time went to Michigan, so it
     made
     the trip many times. It's attended Sturgis (despite being a Japanese
     bike,
     but I drove it there unlike many of the Harleys!) prowled the
     streets of
     Chicago, etc. But it got put into storage when I moved to Europe and
     took a
     long time to catch up to me. It recently was made road-worthy and is
     still
     wearing US plates, although I'll have to fix that over the next
     year. It is
     very difficult and very expensive to insure a vehicle in Europe with
     US
     plates. But for those from the US or Canada attending Le Mans
     Classic - -IT
     CAN BE DONE!
     Anyway, my question. The tendency in race cars and sports cars is
     moving
     away from a manual transmission to an automatic. I know that isn't
     quite
     true but don't really care if there is still technically a clutch or
     not -
     if there isn't a clutch pedal inside, then it's an automatic! Why
     hasn't
     the same thing happened with motorcycles? Because the shift time on
     a
     motorcycle is already so short? Do racers even use the clutch on a
     race
     bike? The weight associated with the mechanism is a larger
     percentage of a
     light bike as opposed to a car?
     Just wondering this morning, as it was a nice morning for a ride and
     as
     there's no radio my mind went wandering...


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